Let us look again this evening
to Psalm 89. I said last week that the first
thing that we notice about this psalm is the title and the author. The title is simply, Machil,
which means a teaching psalm. And then the author is Ethan
the Ezerite. This man, Ethan, possibly was
the Ethan who is called a singer that David installed to praise
the Lord when they moved the Ark of the Covenant. You remember
when he brought the Ark of the Covenant to him, that he did
so with great rejoicing. And one of the men, there was
three men, Ethan, Heman, and Asap, and there Their work was to play the cymbals
of brass. They're called singers, but they
were to play the singers, play the instruments rather of brass,
the cymbals. And he could have lived, and
we don't know this for sure, but of all the men in the scriptures
with this name, it is possible that he lived from the time of
David through the reign of Solomon into the reign of Rehoboam. when
the 10 tribes separated themselves from the king, King Rehoboam,
and this is what we believe is meant in verse 39, when it says,
thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant, thou hast profaned
his crown by casting it to the ground. We looked last time at
the verses in two of Matthew Henry's comments, he divided
his comments into five divisions, and we looked at two of the scriptures
in two of those divisions last time. And tonight, we're going
to look at the scriptures in two more of his divisions. The first was his third division,
verses 15 through 18. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice
all the day, and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted. For Thou
art the glory of their strength, and in Thy favor our horn shall
be exalted. For the Lord is our defense,
and the Holy One of Israel is our King. We see here a very
clear declaration Blessed is the people. There's no ands,
are, maybes, buts, no. Here are the people that God
declares to be blessed. Blessed, notice again in verse
15, blessed, happy. That's what that word blessed
means. Of course, happy is the people
that know the joyful sound. Who are they? And am I one of
them? That's the question. Who are
these who know the joyful sound? And am I one of them? Well, let's look at what we are
told about them. First of all, they know the joyful
sound. These that God declares to be
blessed, to be happy, they know the joyful sound. Now I want
us to look at two passages of scripture to determine what this
joyful sound is. What is meant by this joyful
sound? Blessed is the people who know
the joyful sound. I want you to look back with
me to Leviticus chapter 25 first. We'll come back here to the Psalms,
so keep your place. But if you will, turn back to
Leviticus chapter 25 and verse 9. The scripture here says, Leviticus
chapter 25 and verse 9, This is part of the law that God gave
to Israel through Moses. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet
of the Jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month. In the day of atonement shall
you make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. Now we know what happened on
the day that this trumpet sounded. It only sounded in this sense
once every 50 years, once every 50 years. It sounded in the Jubilee
year and only then. And that was the day what's important
is we know what happened on that day. Every person who was in
debt was forgiven. All debts were canceled. All
debts were forgiven. And all of those who were servants,
slaves at that time, they were all set free. Now, this took
place, you notice, on the 10th day of the 7th month. And we see here, it was the Day
of Atonement. Remember, that's the only day
in the year, the only day in the year that the high priest
who was a picture or a type of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
our high priest, who that day entered into the Holy of Holies
to make an atonement for the people. And he made that atonement,
of course, by sprinkling the blood upon the mercy seat and
before the mercy seat. But it was on that day, in the
year of Jubilee, when these silver trumpets sounded, and that was
a joyful sound. If you were in debt, if you were
in debt, when you heard that sound, that was a joyful sound. And not only if you were in debt,
but if you were someone's servant, a Hebrew servant, that meant
you could go home. You were set free. Now look with
me also in Isaiah chapter 61. Blessed, our text tells us, blessed
are the people, is the people that know the joyful sound. In Isaiah chapter 61, and you will recognize this prophecy,
is the prophecy that the Lord Jesus Christ read when he began
his public ministry just after he had been baptized by John
the Baptist and returned to Nazareth, entered into the synagogue there
where he had been brought up. And they handed the scriptures
to him and he stood up to read and he found this place right
here. The spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings. This is a joyful sound, good
tidings unto the meek. This is a joyful sound, good
tidings, glad tidings, good news. The gospel is not good news to
everyone who hears, but it is good news to those who we see
are described here in this verse of scripture. The gospel is good
news to the meek. The Spirit of the Lord God is
upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings,
the joyful sound unto the meek. Now what does that mean, the
meek? To those who are poor in spirit. Those who are poor in
spirit because of their sin, recognizing their sin, their
need. They are poor in spirit and the
Lord Jesus Christ was anointed to preach glad tidings unto the
meek. And it is also not only to the
meek, but to bind up the brokenhearted, brokenhearted because of their
sin, because they have been made to know, made to know by God
the Holy Spirit of their sin against God. God, the Holy Spirit,
He's the one who makes us to know this, that we have sinned.
Yes, people will say, well, everybody's sinned. I understand that. And
most people will confess that. We've all sinned. We've all made
mistakes. That's true. But when God, the
Holy Spirit, brings the Word of God to us, that's when our
heart is broken because we are made to see that our sin is against
God, against a good God, against a God who has only always done
everything good for us. And we have sinned against him. We've showed our unappreciation
by our sin against God. And we are broken hearted over
our sin. And it is to those who are captives. Notice he, in this verse, he
hath anointed me to preach good tidings, that is the joyful sound
unto the poor in spirit. He has sent me to bind up the
broken hearted to proclaim liberty to the captives. Someone might
say, well, I never have thought of myself as a captive. The reason
you've never thought of yourself as a captive is because you are
captive, because you are under the power of Satan. That's the
reason. But we all come into this world
and we are captives to sin, to Satan, And we can't free ourselves,
just like a man in a prison. And those prisons at that day,
we've already mentioned that just recently, were like a cistern. And those men were women, I suppose,
too, were put down in a hole. There was no way out. That's
one way, in fact, that's one way that slave owners kept their
slaves at night. They would put them down in a
pit, in a hole, and they couldn't get out. They couldn't bring
themselves up. They had to be lifted out. And
man by nature is a captive to Satan. Taken captive, that's
what Paul tells us, taken captive by him at his will, that is,
Satan's will. And the only way to be freed
is through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were in one of those prisons
tonight, down in the ground, down in a hole, no way to get
out, wouldn't that be good news if someone came along and said,
hey, I'm here to set you free. I'm here to get you out of this
mess. That'd be good news, wouldn't it? Well, that's what the gospel
is to those who see themselves as captives, those who see themselves
as poor in spirit, and those who have a broken heart because
of sin. It opens the prison door and
it says you're free. I read this past week, I believe
it was, of a man who was on a ship. He'd been on a ship for several
months out at sea. And when they got to shore, he
was seen on this bridge buying up these birds. Cage after cage
after cage of birds, you know. People sell those birds because
they're pretty and because they sing. This man bought as many
as he could, and what did he do? He just opened the cage and
let them go free! Free! He knew what it was to
have been in captivity. And it gave him joy to turn those
birds loose, to free them. The joyful sound, notice it speaks
of the acceptable year, verse two, to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. What is that acceptable year? It's that jubilee year. It's
that 50th year when the debtors have their debts forgiven, and
the prisoners, the slaves, the captives are set free. The acceptable
year of the Lord. And notice, and the day of vengeance
of our God. God took vengeance upon our enemy,
that is Satan, and defeated him. Oh yes, he bruised our Savior's
heel, but our Savior crushed his head, took vengeance upon
our enemy, Satan, and also he took vengeance upon our sins. The time when, through the Lord
Jesus Christ, this acceptable year, the time that he took vengeance
was when The Lord Jesus Christ came into this world and through
his work of substitution in the room of his people, in him, we
are accepted. This is a good tidings. This is the joyful sound that
our text speaks about. It was a time that he took vengeance
on all our enemies, Satan was defeated, sin was removed, death
and the grave were conquered. Remember what the angels, let
me read this to us, so don't misquote it, but in Luke chapter
two, the night the Lord Jesus Christ was born, it's a beautiful
text. The angel said unto the pastors
who were out tending their sheep that night, For unto you is born
this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the
Lord. A Savior, good tidings. The verse
before it, the angel said, fear not, for behold, I bring you
good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. What
is the good tidings? What is the joyful sound? unto
you is born this day in the city of David, a savior, which is
Christ the Lord. And it's not just knowing this
joyful sound. Some people may say, well, I
know the gospel. I can define the gospel. Yes,
but it's knowing it in your heart. It's knowing it, trusting in
the Lord Jesus Christ, believing in him. So that's the first thing
about these people who are blessed They know the joyful sound. They
know the gospel. They know it by experience. They have experienced the grace
of God in their hearts. Now the second thing we are told,
they walk in the light of God's countenance. Notice that also
in verse 15. Blessed is the people that know
the joyful sound. They shall walk, O Lord, in the
light of thy countenance." In other words, they walk in the
sunshine of God's gracious presence in Christ. It is Christ in you,
the hope of glory. And God the Holy Spirit, we know
He comes to live in us. Our bodies become the temple
of the Holy Spirit. The words of the Apostle Paul
to the believers at Philippi were, work out your own salvation
with fear and trembling. Now listen, for it is God which
worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Those who know the joyful sound,
we walk in the light of God's countenance. And also, here's
a promise that was given in Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 21. This is for our believer. And
thine ears shall hear a word behind thee as you're walking
through this world. Thine ears shall hear a word
behind thee saying, this is the way. We're not capable of directing
our own steps. We need the Lord to direct us. And we have this promise, a word
from behind us saying, this is the way, walk you in it, when
you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. Now,
John Gill did make this point about walking in the light of
his countenance. And it's important. It is an
important point that he made. Sometimes we do not walk in the
light of his countenance. We walk in darkness and see no
light. You say, do believers experience
that? Yes. Sometimes God hides his
face. He hides his face from his children. We know that. Well, what is a
believer to do then? Well look in Isaiah chapter 50
and we find what he is to do. It may be because of sin, it
may not be because of sin, that God hides his face sometimes
from his children. But we know this, it's always
for our good. But what is a believer to do? Notice in verse 10 of Isaiah
50, who is among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth the voice
of his servant? Now notice, that walketh in darkness
and hath no light. You ever had a day like that?
Maybe more than a day. Sure you have if you've been
saved for any time. Most likely for sure. What is
he to do? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord. and stay upon his God. Let him keep on trusting in the
Lord. And he will bring you out, he'll
bring you out into the sunshine of his presence once again. Now here's the third thing, if
you look back in our psalm tonight, the third thing that is true
of those who the Lord declares to be blessed In verse 16 it
says, In thy name shall they rejoice all the day. Now to rejoice in the name of
the Lord is to rejoice in Him. To believe in the name of the
Lord is to believe in Him. His name, that means Him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. It means to call upon
Him to call upon Christ, God, Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
upon Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
of Him without a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sinned? God has used men to go out into
the world. He's commanded us to go into
all the world and to preach the gospel to every creature. Someone
said, why don't you just preach to God's elect? That's not his
command. And we don't know who God's elect
are to begin with. We just preach the gospel to
every creature. Ho, everyone that thirsteth,
let him come to the waters. Let him come and buy without
money, wine and milk. That's what the scripture says.
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved. Whosoever believeth
not shall be damned. They rejoice in Christ all the
day. Turn to another place with me
tonight, to Philippians chapter three. When we read here this
declaration about the blessed people, the happy people, they
are those who rejoice in the Lord all the day. In Philippians chapter
three, verse three, We're given here by the Apostle Paul three
marks of a true Israelite. You know, there are Israelites
after the flesh. They are the natural descendants
of Abraham. And then there is the spiritual
seed of Abraham, true Israelites. And here the Apostle gives us
three marks of the true circumcision, for we are the circumcision.
First of all, we worship God in spirit. And number two, we
rejoice in Christ Jesus. And number three, we have no
confidence in the flesh. Now I brought us here because
the text there in the psalm tells us that those who are blessed
are happy that they rejoice in the Lord all the day. Now, this
is something I saw just recently. But if you look in verse three,
we just read that verse, that second mark, and rejoice in Christ
Jesus, and then look up in verse one where the apostle said, finally,
my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. Now just reading these verses,
we see the same English word rejoice in verse one and rejoice
in verse three, but they're two different Greek words. The word that is translated rejoice
in verse one means to be glad, to be glad. To be full of cheer, to be glad. But the word which is translated
rejoice in verse three, it means to vaunt or to boast, to boast. You say, well, boast, that's,
That's a mark of pride. God's children are not to be
proud. Absolutely, we're not to be proud. We know that's a
sin. But we are to boast in Jesus Christ. Which means we are to
glory, to glory in the Lord Jesus Christ. Same word that we find
in 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 31. He that glorieth, let him
glory in the Lord. Same word that Paul used in Galatians
6 and verse 14 when he said, but God forbid that I should
glory, that I should boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. In other words, we don't boast
in anything we do or anything we are, but we do boast in the
Lord Jesus Christ and his work for us in our stead and in our
place. I think of that passage in Jeremiah
chapter 9, where the rich man's told not to rejoice in his riches,
and the strong man's not to rejoice in his strength, and the wise
man's not to rejoice in his wisdom, but he that rejoiceth, let him
rejoice in this, that he knoweth me, God says. That's cause for
rejoicing, for boasting in Christ. All right, here's the fourth
thing back in the text. It says, they shall be exalted
in righteousness, the last part of verse 16. And in thy righteousness,
that is in God's righteousness, they shall be exalted. It is in his righteousness that
we are clothed. Remember when the prodigal son
came home, and the father said, get the best robe and put on
him? That best robe is a picture of the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's the best robe. And God's
children are clothed from head to foot in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this verse tells us that
we will be exalted. It says, and in thy righteousness
shall they be exalted. Well now, we know we're not going
to be exalted in this world. We're servants. But there is
coming a day, there is coming a time when the Lord Jesus Christ
shall return and God's children, we shall be exalted in his righteousness. We shall be conformed to his
image. It does not yet appear what we
shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be
like Him. And then here's the fifth thing.
They have Christ as their strength and horn, it says in verse 17. For thou art the glory of their
strength, and in thy favor our horn shall be exalted. Isaiah 45 and verse 24, we read,
surely shall one say, and the Lord have our righteousness and
strength, even to him shall men come. We have no strength in
ourselves. The Lord Jesus Christ told his
disciples, and thus he told us, if we are one of his children,
without me, you can do nothing. Absolutely nothing. A big zero. Zilch. He is our strength. We're told to be strong in the
Lord. That is, we are to be strong in him, in his strength. We have
no strength of our own. The word horn in the Old Testament
is a symbol for power, for beauty, and for plenty. We've all heard
of the horn of plenty. We've seen those pictures, haven't
we? In the fall, the horn of plenty.
Well, Christ is the horn of plenty. We have plenty in Christ. We
have everything in Him. We have no needs. We have no
deficiency. We have everything in Christ. We have wisdom, we have righteousness,
we have sanctification, we have redemption. Everything that we
need, we have in Him. And then the sixth thing, they
have the Lord for their defense. In verse 18, for the Lord is
our defense. The Lord is our defense. In His
hand we are safe from all harm. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth, who
is he that condemneth. It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again. And the last thing we see here
in verse 18, they have the Holy One of Israel as their king.
Who is that, the Holy One of Israel? It is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our king. He's our priest. He's our prophet. He's the mediator
of his people. These are the blessed or happy
people in this world. You know, if you were to ask
the average person on the street, who is a happy person in this
world, I doubt you would find very many people who would answer
to these things. Most people would say, well,
he's, he's happy, who's real rich. Well, riches cannot bring
happiness. In fact, the scripture says riches
make themselves wings and fly away. Health, some people would
say that's a happy person, the one who has good health and nothing
but good health, never knows any sickness. That's not who
God says is blessed, who's happy, but he who knows the joyful sound,
that is the gospel. What a different definition,
right? Now, the second division, I'm
only going to read. And that was Matthew Henry's
second division also in verses five through 14. And what I say
in these verses is that they speak to us about
our worship, our private and our public worship. In verse
7, we see that our worship should be reverent. Notice that in verse 7, God is
greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in
reverence of all them that are about him. When we come together,
there should be reverence in our service. And then we praise
God for his uniqueness in verse six. For who in heaven can be
compared unto the Lord? He asked that question, didn't
he? To whom will you liken me? He's unique in the sense there's
no one like God. And we should worship him as
the only one, the only true God. His faithfulness, we worship
Him because of His faithfulness. Verse 5, And the heavens shall
praise thy wonders, O Lord, thy faithfulness also in the congregation
of the saints. God has never let anyone down. I would imagine most all of us
here, at one time or the other, we've let someone down. We've
disappointed someone or the other. God never has, never will. He's faithful. He's faithful
to His covenant. He's faithful to His promises.
He is faithful. And then His power, in verse
13, thou hast a mighty arm, strong is thy hand, and high is thy
right hand, and His throne is established with justice. As we read in verse 14, justice
and judgment are the habitation of thy throne. Mercy and truth
shall go before thy face. It's not the place where we worship
God, but it is our attitude that is all important. that we reverence
him, that we thank him and praise him for his being and his attributes,
others that are not mentioned here, but that our attitude be
right with him. And when the scripture here says
justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne, that
reminds us that God has never done anything and never will. That is not good. He never has
done anything or he never will do something that is not good. Why? Because he's good. because
he's just, because he's righteous. Therefore, his works are good,
just, and righteous. I pray the Lord would bless this
word to us here this evening. If you will, we'll sing another
hymn and then we'll be dismissed in prayer.